Truthout: Deride and Conquer: Dismantling the USPS

[Omaha Steve]

http://truth-out.org/news/item/23471-deride-and-conquer-dismantling-the-usps

Sunday, 04 May 2014
By Douglas Jamiel, Truthout | News Analysis

Reagan's mass firing of the Air Traffic Controllers (PATCO) in 1981 breathed new life into the right's long felt anti-labor animus and inspired hope of once and for all crushing the power of the US labor movement, a considerable portion of whose members were postal workers.


(Photo: brian hefele / flickr)

The historical cost of building our postal network, its unique characteristics and efficiency, the nefarious efforts to privatize and cripple it, and the economic and personal costs of losing it are considered.


An army prefers to fight on familiar terrain. Absent such serendipitous circumstances, a good general will try to move the conflict to more hospitable ground. In their long-thwarted campaign to cripple, privatize and cannibalize the assets of the United States postal system, conservative and business interests have finally, it seems, turned the tide of battle by employing a more measured and subtle strategy of legislative and economic subterfuge. Having failed in a full-on frontal assault on government control last attempted by private carriers in the mid-1840s, the Postal Service's detractors have mounted a new, more promising offensive in the present era. To their credit, they have enjoyed some success by redefining the terms of engagement, and by reconstituting the nature and mission of the US postal system from its historical role as a civil service entity to a Frankenstein-like corporate/government hybrid with most of the downsides, and few of the advantages of both.


Since the 1970s, the right has patiently tried to wrest control of the US Postal Service from the government using a three-step strategy characterized by: a) ideologically legitimizing its effort through scholarship cooked up in Koch-funded think tanks like Cato and the American Enterprise Institute; b) politically codifying it in generic, legal templates drawn up in legislative boiler rooms like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), and c) economically executing their plan by forcing USPS to operate in a commercial arena where it would be squeezed on one side by government constraints, and, on the other, forced to compete with global private carriers like FedEx and UPS not subject to the same legislative mandates. Each strategy deserves scrutiny, for each is a piece of a puzzle which, when we step back and view it from afar, reveals the right's goal of undermining and co-opting this venerable institution.

Clearing the Post Road

Even before the founding of the Republic, a rudimentary postal system was part of the Articles of Confederation (Article IX).For Washington, Jefferson and Madison, the postal system was more a matter of principle than philatelics. It was, for them, not just a vehicle for the physical transmission of personal correspondence, it was a vital part of the intellectual and social fabric of the nation in its facilitation of discourse among the citizenry, a view that has been upheld over centuries of legal challenges to its government mandate. In a paper for George Mason University (surprisingly objective for George Mason, an institution awash in Koch money), Richard R. John (John, 2008. Pg.16) reminds us that the principle source of information at the time - the "mass media" - was not personal letters but newspapers. They therefore deemed newspapers, above all, worthy of government support and even subsidy, and understood intuitively what Napoleon, their contemporary, appreciated as a practical point of policy when he remarked: "Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets." He had, after all, the memory of Louis XVI's head in a basket to remind him that the nascent French press had a lot to do with the monarch's demise.

© 2014 Truthout

FULL story at link.

[okaawhatever]

1. K & R nt

[pa28]

2. Just another way we are killing family wage jobs through policy.

Our politicians pretend it's all a big mystery why wages are stagnating and inequality is rising.

[blkmusclmachine]

3. I would assume UPS and FedEx have vested interest in all this, yes??

[elzenmahn]

6. You better believe they do...

...and I'd check on the lobbyist cash that flows from those two entities to verify it, but they have everything to gain if USPS goes under.

[pnwmom]

4. The people in rural areas and small towns will feel the loss of the USPS the most.

UPS and Fedex cherry pick the large metro areas and charge them cheaper prices. The small towns pay through the nose.

Meanwhile, it costs the same thing to mail a letter or package through the USPS anywhere in the country. So the people there who oppose the post office are NUTS.

[elzenmahn]

9. They're nuts...like a fox

The people trying to scuttle the USPS are ideologues who don't believe in government-run ANYTHING. They'll try to come back with an argument like, every service that is government-provided means one less opportunity for an entrepreneur to do the same thing, "cheaply" and "more efficiently".

My father was a postal worker for over thirty years. His hard, UNIONIZED work helped ensure that we can send a letter anywhere across the country for postage rates cheaper than most of the developed world. And while it ain't perfect, I'll take the USPS for daily mail and letters than any alternative that UPS or FedEx wants to foist upon us.

[rickyhall]

5. I buy a lot stuff online and the US Post Office saves me a lot of $$.

It's also faster & more dependable. I'm not happy with privatization.

[madville]

7. It's upsetting that so many Democrats

Cosponsored and voted to put the USPS in its current financial crisis, having to fund employee benefits in advance. It was almost unanimous bipartisan support for the current plan that is killing it.

Ted Kennedy and Henry Waxman were particularly disappointing with their hand in it.

[Indydem]

8. Thats because the Postal Carriers Union WANTED IT!

Since everyone seems to have a terrible memory around here, I'll say it. Do your own research if you doubt me.

The Postal Carriers Union feared the death of the postal service due to electronic mail and commerce. They wanted to protect their union members that hadn't even started working their yet from the collapse that they saw coming. Therefore, they cooked up this prefunding and got Democrats in Washington to sponsor it and push it.

This whole pre-funding situation and the chaos that it has caused is because of their own desire to be 1000% secure for themselves and all future workers. The free market didn't do this. UPS didn't do this. FEDEX didn't do this. They did this to themselves. Period.

[Omaha Steve]

12. You made the comment

What have you got to back that up? I have got to hear this.

OS

[Enthusiast]

13. No.

Utter Bullshit.

[2banon]

10. K&R'd

important read..

[Starry Messenger]

11. k&r

[Omaha Steve]

14. Kick

[freshwest]

15. Don't forget the Libertarian Party platform:

BERNIE SANDERS Uncovers 1980 Koch Agenda- "What Do the Koch Brothers Want?"

“...We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service...”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024806298

That meme is constantly used by the Infowars, etc. crowds to lure Democrats into voting against, or not caring about, the destruction of the USPS. Because Big Brother is always the government, right?

Not really. All the psychological techniques are being used by media to fit within the Libertarian narrative. The rest of that list is being carried out while people fight battles with each other on issues framed by Koch controlled media, both sides herded to come to the same conclusion.

People really should read the whole thing, this is what infighting gets us and gives them.

Which is everything.

[awoke_in_2003]

17. inefficient?

USPS consistently delivers packages to and from me quicker and cheaper than UPS. I have gotten to the point to where I will not order from online vendors who use UPS.

[Zorra]

16. Thank you. Recommended. nt